1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image printing apparatus and a method of controlling the same, and more particularly, to an image printing apparatus to determine a level of driving voltage of a light source according to the condition of a system to perform a printing, and a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image printing apparatus such as a photocopier or a printer prints an image on recording paper. The image printing apparatus may use either an ink-jet method or a laser printing method based upon the method of a printing engine of the apparatus. Recently, the laser printing method has been widely used to perform a high speed printing operation in the image printing apparatus.
The printing engine employing the laser printing method includes a light-scanning device, a photosensitive medium to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the light emitted from the light scanning device, a developing unit to develop the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive medium, and a transfer device to transfer the image developed on the photosensitive medium by the developing unit to a recording medium.
A driving voltage must be maintained at a predetermined level with respect to a light source of the light-scanning device of the printing engine. Also, a method to compensate for the aging process of the printing engine monitors a partial amount of the light emitted from the light source and adjusts the driving voltage of the light source to thereby project a constant intensity of light over time.
Although the printing quality is determined by the intensity of light emitted from the light source, it also depends on varying characteristics of the photosensitive medium. Therefore, the conventional method of controlling the driving voltage, which only keeps a certain intensity of light emitted from the light source, cannot sufficiently compensate for the deteriorated printing quality caused by the aging process of the printing engine.